My New Year starts in exactly two weeks: I’m 18 in April.

I’ve already gotten my New Year’s presents and I am very happy & grateful :)

When it comes to school, I’m doing fine: grades are good, attendance is great, and I am doing even greater. I am sure my efforts will result in even better grades! I will be also finishing my term paper in Informatics very soon.

In the New Year, I’d like to focus more on programming and Computer Science, read more books, and, above all, relax—I’ve earned my precious leisure & relaxation time.

A higher precedence this year shall take general wellbeing: physical exercises and training, nutrition, and sleep.

Well, that’s all from my end!

Happy New Years,
- Nihad Badalov

I thought he was searching for the IB, the International Baccalaureate, hoping to study in a high school…

After figuring out the spelling, I still couldn’t fully understand what he was looking for. I asked what language he spoke. He replied, “Persisch.” I pulled up Reverso, put on English-Persian, and asked what he looked for. A language course around the block — that’s what he looked for!

I Googled where the courses were and showed him on the phone. I pointed at the street and told him to go right and right once again, before quickly interrupting myself and saying in German, “Let’s go together, I can show it to you!”

And so we went. “Are you from Tehran? Tabriz?” I asked. Those are two of the biggest cities in Iran. “Uhh, no… I am from Afghanistan,” said the man. That struck me, forcing me to recall that Persian is not only spoken in Iran, but also in Afghanistan and Tajikistan—those are two dialects of Persian. I said, “Oh, right, because one speaks a dialect of Persian in Afghanistan, right?” He replied affirmatively. I smiled and asked, “Oh, then, you must be from Kabul, right?” The common geographic knowledge and recognition of his hometown by a foreigner made the man smile and say yes. “Ah, very nice, beautiful,” I said.

While having the small-talk, we quickly walked to the courses around the corner. The man sometimes overtook me, thinking that I’m walking quickly because I’m running late, not wanting to disturb me. I, in my turn, instinctively feeling the aforementioned, slow down, as to calm the man, so he knows I’m not late.

The sweet slouching grandpa and I quickly arrive, shaking hands while smiling and exchanging our gratitude and thank-you’s.

After coming back to the front of my school, where I was originally standing during the recess, and greeting my three classmates, and telling them about my encounter with the Afghan grandpa, I was met with racist remarks. Not me directly, no, but to that grandpa. As I told them about the German language course he was looking for, and they scornfully said, “Haha, he didn’t speak any German, isn’t it? Right.” Another one laughingly snickered, “Of course. Classic.”

And then some other ridiculous remarks…

He was very respectful, smiling both sincerely and out of politeness when necessary.

Thousands of kilometers away from his home.

Away from his culture. Away from the familiar… faces, language, culture, and people.

About 60. Slouching. Old. Decaying body, biologically speaking.

In his new home. Learning a new language. Around new people. Surrounded by a new culture.

Unfamiliar with everything.

Two lessons to extract from this story.

I will not even make anything out of the disrespectful remarks which were anything but spineless, contemptible, superficial, petty, and extremely atavistic. That is left as an exercise for the reader.

Lesson one: intelligence dictates. Excuse the vanity, but one must say the truth: one would not have ever said anything of that sorts about me—the thought wouldn’t even have crossed one’s mind, I dare say. Reasons are thus stated above.

Lesson two: it’s never too late. If a 60-year-old old man with a decaying body can do any wild thing he dreams of, so can you. You have time. You have the brains (if you’re reading this blog, this post, or this sentence here, you definitely do — don’t even ask me for the line of reasoning therebehind, it’s too long). And also: you have the life, you’re still living.


So go ahead and do it, whatever you were putting off. Because if the old chap can pull it off, then so can you!


Wishing love and success,
- Nihad Badalov

Complaining—aargh…

Whenever I am not home, I am forced to notice the sluggish, decaying, and superficial nature of everything.

Transport is so slow. For long distances, both trains and cars really suck! Could you imagine driving 30 minutes back and forth every day? That is a whole hour gone misused. Oh, and believe me, one definitely drains not just an hour.

Conversations are superficial. When was the last time I had a deep, meaningful conversation with someone? (Oh, and if you posed this question to yourself and could answer it, then the pre-last time?) I go to school and I just can’t bear all the talking-to-a-brick-wall conversations. Not mine, I hope–at this point, I stopped trying to initiate conversations and even small talks in favor of just walking around, staring at some works of art, nature, outside the window, and even walls (-- yes, staring at walls is sometimes more enjoyable than some conversations I’ve overheard)! It’s definitely the conversations that I overhear that drain my soul so much. I think it’d be pretty fun if people around me didn’t talk; we would just stare at each other and smile & laugh. Isn’t that more amusing?

All processes are sluggish and slow. Apps do not work. Are you, Dear Reader, not convinced? How complex could one’s school-timetable-showing app be, and what does it do for it to contain bugs that prevent it from working? When I was 12, during the COVID lockdowns, I coded a website like that of my own, so the people in my class could see our schedule and the homework we were given. What was its uptime, pray tell? 100%. A twelve-year-old kid—not even a teenager—programmed a more reliable solution than a team of professional developers: with an admin panel, a database, authentication & authorization, ability to add homework, comments, and all other needed things. What is the concrete excuse to produce anything but reliable software?

Apologies for my complaints, but I am thus debilitated. Other apps are terribly slow as well! Everything’s carelessly sloppy.


One’s best choice is to be isolated right now: hydrated, moisturized, and flourishing in one’s own lane. (Or lead change on one’s own.)


✨ Creating ✨ (regardless of what that seems to mean; here: opposite of “consuming”) is definitely making me better right now. Can only speak favorably of doing so.


- Nihad Badalov

Now, I am not so sure as I always used to be.


What prompted me to write this blog post was me thinking about whether people can change. I discovered that people can change, indeed! The amount of change one can trigger in a year full of consistent practice is impressive. You might ask: how does that relate to marriage? I’ll tell you.


I always thought of marrying someone intelligent, not ugly (preferably beautiful; P.S. I think it’s definitely not hypocritical for me to say this, because I’ve been working on my appearance too!), with a good moral compass, curious & eager to learn, and, of course, someone who I’d enjoy spending time with. (When someone asked me who I’d marry, my typical answer would be “a diplomat’s daughter,” hah!)

I’d always stress the “intelligent” part, because I thought that if you’re not “smart” by your twenties–presumably because you spent your time doing nothing “useful”–then you wouldn’t be a match for me, because that’s not what I did, because we’re not the same, because <insert another prejudice here>.


But:

• Who you surround yourself with plays a huge role in what you become.
• What people say and whether/how you perceive that also plays a huge role.
• Whether/what you were forced to do by your parents also plays a huge role.

Everything plays a huge role in what you become.


But that doesn’t mean you can’t change!

You can, in my opinion, change strongly if you do so (or, especially if you do so) with a person you love (see the Michelangelo Phenomenon).


So, if people can change, if I can change, if any person could change, why would I be so rigid to “lock” my choice only to one archetype of a person? This realization also came to me after looking at people in my English and math classes: after trying to find beautiful aspects of each and every person in my class, I was in awe of how talented everyone is; even some people in my math class who had been slacking have gotten way better. I was pleasantly surprised.


So yeah, you won’t have to speak neither my mother tongue nor Russian nor anything–even a single language I can speak is fine. I guess the only thing that would matter is whether you want to learn new things, whether you’re curious–because I am and I am always eager to discover; if so, we’d be a match.


I’m truly at a loss of words by this discovery.


- Nihad Badalov

I loathe all that’s Soviet: the “Soviet” way of thinking, the mindset, and many other things…

Doesn’t matter if you were rich or poor—if you have that “Soviet” inside you (except education & intelligence—features one always looks up to), I may find the trait distasteful—being blunt.

Poor

If you were poor, you’d think that you’re just a piece of workforce, you’re not meant for more: you’re supposed to work and help your employer to help your Родина (“Ródina” - ru. motherland); God forbid if you thought you were directly helping it… hahah!

I don’t like that mindset. That’s a “poor man’s mindset”: that you’re only, only, and only supposed to work, that you’re not the ruler of your life, not the paver of your path – this directly makes you someone’s subordinate–always. And that directly goes against my ethics & moral values, since I was always taught to be independent, strong, and sovereign.


I can’t stress it enough: this is such a victim mindset. And it can’t even get more naïve!

Oh, and if you were not naïve, if you knew that you were being exploited by virtually everyone “above” you, then I suppose you’d lived a miserable life!

Rich

This is even worse. This case is way worse.

You know your country was involved in two World Wars and had massive losses (or maybe you don’t, because you don’t care: because you graduated expecting to misuse people), but you still exploit it!

Maybe you’re a corrupt police official who, in cooperating with criminals, confiscates & expropriates people’s possessions!

Maybe you’re a good person, but you lack the morals to stand up against the corruption! (I really don’t blame you here, I can see from your perspective.)

But how do you even live like this? How greedy and wolfish do you have to be? At least give something back to those poor souls… What a thief!..

Drama

Petty drama. Soap opera. Tittle-tattle, gossip, talking behind people’s backs.
Lack of stoicism—therefore, “woe is me”. Too much emotion and too many emotions.
Being poor (not inherently a problem by itself, but…):

• being poor and just wanting things without doing anything to earn them;
• being poor and too dissatisfied, too ungrateful, too stagnant & static…

These people live in “local minimae”–inside their own little bubbles of their relatives & acquaintances. In most cases, they don’t live happy lives–as if they were a dying lion, surrounded by hyenas (the different kinds of distractions, nuisances, and drama).

I would really love to describe them more to the reader of this blog, but I cannot fathom how they exist. I simply do not understand. There’s one last thing about them, though:

Surely enough, they yell and probably even beat their children for not studying enough or getting bad grades; but when the children grow up, they don’t become anything that would justify the amounts of trauma they had to go through.

A lot of people felt/feel (there are still millions of people like this) that they should be following a different path, a more lavish, a more happy, a more ambitious one; they feel that they were destined for other things, but while sensing their helplessness, lack of agency and hope, having no idea how to achieve their goals, they, in their misery, began to hate everything around them, including themselves. (Modified quote from Netochka Nezvanova by Fyodor Dostoevsky.)

And so the never-ending cycle continues.

Intelligence & Education…

…are the only things I admire about the “Soviets”. One thing here troubles me–that’s credentialism; take that away, and it would be a great intellectual space.

The respect shown toward the intellectuals, “movers,” pioneers–all the people who define the direction of technological & scientific innovations–is certainly admirable and the way it should be.


- Nihad Badalov

First: Enjoying

I get dopamine from learning new things. Basically, I’m having fun.

If you want to study a lot, you might want to enjoy it and have fun while learning new things.

Second: Guilt

I feel guilty when I’m not studying. I feel like I’m—excuse me, I hope I’m not being full of myself here—robbing myself of something—my future.

If you want to study a lot, you might need an emotional catalyst—something that pushes you, your emotions, and your heart to study.

Third: A Specific Reason

I have a long set of nice goals and dreams! And there are reasons for me to study—they’re my dreams: there is no way to achieve them without studying.

If you want to study a lot, you might need a reason to do so.

Fourth: Environment

Although not in real life, but rather in the Internet, I have surrounded myself with like-minded people: programmers, engineers, people interested in linguistics, etc.

Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are. If you’re in a room with 5 gentlemen doing 100 pushups every day, in the end, you will be doing them too.

If you want to study a lot, you might want to do it in an encouraging environment with people who are better than you and who are interested in the same things as you.

Might add more reasons in the future!


- Nihad Badalov

An Infotag (de.; info-day) in a school is…

a day when you greet 10-year-olds into your gymnasium, so they can understand what it provides and why it’s good.

Spent some time with children, helping them draw their names on some bags, which made me feel better (:

Played chess with a classmate of mine. We trash-talked a little. I won.

Tomorrow, I’ll be submitting my informatics olympiad. My math olympiad on Thursday went better than I expected.

I have a research project coming up, with the British friend of mine. I hope it turns into a series of papers/preprints.

I drank matcha today, ate sushi and drank only sparkling water.

I also read the Permanent Record a little. About 80 more pages to go.

As always, I did my physical exercise routine. I really liked the decline pushups with pressure on the chest.

I reviewed my nature photos (the ones I take on my phone), thought about putting them on this website. I also took a few pictures of a tree and a street today. I like taking pictures because it is a way for me to express my gratitude and appreciation of the small things I discover/like in the nature.

I finished off today with a shower, an ice mask and, like always, my facial skincare routine.

I also wrote three blog posts, the average length being about 320 words.

I am planning to go swim tomorrow in the morning.

I hope to manufacture missiles and do philanthropy when I grow up.

But what is the meaning of all this?


One finds his own meaning.


Although performant,
I sometimes feel empty. I wonder why.


- Nihad Badalov

TheJaunt said the following about credentialists that are “above you” in business hierarchy:

[…] your life depends upon you dancing when he says dance, freezing when he says freeze – I […] hate it. I feel like it’s like having rats nibbling at your soul every day: it doesn’t go away in one day, it takes time; and over the course of time, those rats, they go to work.

This is such a good description of school.

Take me into a magnet school. Let me attend a university or something. But this is meh.

ALL of the classes I am in are very boring either because I’m good at the subject, or because the subject is too easy, or because it is absolutely useless to me. (Edit: Please, excuse my teenage complaints.)

I haven’t touched Chemistry for a year and I’m still slaying in my Chemistry class, because we are learning things I learned in the 7th/8th grade. Can you believe that? (Edit: Excuse this too, please.)

Physics hasn’t been touched for a year too, but we’re learning things I learned in 9th and 10th grades, which I should brush up on.

I’m not even going to mention English. Peace of cake. It is so easy (our teacher is both an amazing teacher and an amazing person, for which I am infinitely thankful) that it’s beyond boredom–I already started joking with some of my classmates during class and making whole presentations about… please, excuse this blasphemous vanity… myself: I once made a whole presentation about myself—which was supposed to be a presentation to show our empirical research—without a thesis, researching, or any sources. I think we do not get pressured enough; diamonds will not be formed — alas!

A few months ago we were supposed to present a topic on social medias, and it was supposed to be 2 minutes tops. I talked about social medias for 90 seconds, then spent EIGHT more minutes talking about…! you get the drill.

Oh, and maths. I haven’t touched maths for about 14 months. And to be honest, I’ve been slacking a little–ever so slightly. I do not think it will be too difficult to catch up. We have a great teacher—something worth mentioning.

Other than that… Nothing. I hope we’ll start getting extremely difficult topics in CS, so I can show myself what I’m capable of. (Am I seeking validation here? I don’t think so. I am seeking challenge, I dare say.)

PS: I capitalized the names of subjects on purpose, to make them typographically more visible. I am not illiterate.

🕊️
- Nihad Badalov

8 BILLION people experience every day from a different perspective, living a different life; those are 8 billion different stories every day.

Although I fully understand that the beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, I believe that every person has something beautiful about them. Every day, I go to school and meet my classmates. Some think that this would get boring quickly. Indeed, the school itself did, but not the people. I appreciate things both big and small: dimples while smiling, guy’s confidence, girl’s freight of spiders, someone’s ambitions to get better and speak more eloquently, and so on.

There is so much to learn about everyone, so many stories – and they are often left untold. Some people mistake my curiosity for an attempt of violation of person boundaries, some think that I am challenging their opinions because of my thorough, investigative questions that follow after their answers: “Really? But why this and not that? Why not “foo” or “bar”?” Yet, I am just trying to grasp the people, get their mental models, acquire their way of thinking – I want to feel them. But again, sometimes I’m not given the liberty.

I love humans. As a Humanist, I am extroverted (specifically when I talk in a language I can speak well). This extroversion has certain pros and cons. Pros: I’m really easy to get along with, I try to cater my personality to you when talking, and I’m in for some small talk. As for cons: some a few folks think I’m some fruitloop asking random questions, not caring what they (have to) say… a-a-and that’s it! Nothing more! I think it’s worth it.

My humanism also encapsulates getting to know more about archetypes of people. I am quite a mixed archetype of my own (I feel like this also contributes to the fruitloop impression, lol). And because I also chat with people from different countries and cultures, I get diverse mental models; like I said, this also makes my own archetype very nuanced and rare – to the point that people don’t expect completely normal things like me listening to Taylor Swift…? or rock? or when they hear the first two, classical music’s now surprising (although it wouldn’t have been otherwise, if the former were left untold)? huh? lol. genuinely surprised.

Every humans belongs to a certain culture (at least upon birth) and has a mother tongue. I’m out for those! I love exploring cultures and learning languages. Recently, my German has been getting slightly better, making me more confident when I speak to strangers; somehow (it’s a direct correlation, to be fair) this has also enabled me to get a deeper sense of people and certain cultural aspects.

I’m really looking forward to learning French and exploring the francophone culture. However, I have so many things on my plate that I suppose I will have to postpone this relish for later — sadge (sic.; = sad)!

What I also noticed is that my gratitude, appreciation of nature and everything around, and my Humanist nature — they all developed at the same time. I’ll assume there is a direct correlation here too, since all of those are more specific versions of “appreciation” as an abstract concept.

I could have covered this topic more in-depth, but I somehow couldn’t. I will loop back to this sometime in the future to make this a worthwhile read.

- Nihad Badalov

And it is not what you think.

It is a “who.”

No, not someone from my family.
No, not a friend of mine.
No, not even a person from the same country as me.
No, not even a person who speaks my mother tongue(s).

I have to exercise more.
I don’t have to learn more, but I have to be more consistent and efficient.
Perhaps, I could even learn more.
I have to better my German.

I’ve never thought it would come down to this level of intensity.
Really pondering on how this is plausible.

But on a better note: this someone makes me want to become better.
And I am very grateful for that.

Thank you, The Someone.

- Nihad Badalov

Note:

There are two main festivals in Islam, the second one being Qurban Bayramı (AKA Eid al-Adha or Feast of the Sacrifice). As the name suggests, during the festival, livestock is sacrificed. And because the majority of Azerbaijan’s population is Muslim, they celebrate this charitable festival.

When I was little – somewhere between six and nine – my family took me to celebrate this holiday. At first, when I saw goats be-e-e’ing and then getting their heads chopped off, I whined and told my parents I would be converting to Christianity as soon as possible because of this animal cruelty. Long story short, we also “sacrificed” two goats and got their meat cut into cubes.

I vividly recall everything even to this day.

We first gave a piece to the man who cut the meat for us. The man’s skin tone was a little dark: one could observe that he constantly works under the sun – one of the more obvious aspects in the workers vs. aristocracy discourse. He also seemed a little tired. He thanked us very much for sharing our meal with him and wished us a great day.

Then, we gave some meat to those less fortunate in the area where we sacrificed the goat (we were far from Baku, the capital city). Skin colors of those less fortunate were also a little dark: one could see they were often outside, earning money for their family – the same way the man above did. They also seemed exhausted, unmoved by the beauties of life. The mothers (I’d say they were about 40) looked at us, thanked us very-very much, wished us God’s mercy, the best, and a good day. The kids seemed grateful, but shy: one could see that in that they bowed their heads slightly and didn’t look into our eyes (I suppose this is a way to show respect and say your thank-you’s in a non-verbal manner), but never backed up their body language with words – and that’s out of shyness.

We then drove back to Baku–the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan. We saw some beggars, and except for an old man, all were women. We greatly pitied the man – imagine what must have happened to him to end up homeless! All of them were excessively thankful, thanked us a ton of times, wished God would bestow all the beauties of life upon us (and even enumerated them), thanked me (a little kiddo, haha!), asked God to bless me & my parents and keep me safe – one woman even told us her life story!

What broke my heart was that very notion. Imagine you’re a woman in your late 30s with a little child. Your man left you for whichever unjust reason. You’re left alone with a kid, unable to work. And God forbid – God Forbid! – that you are sick or injured! What’s worse – the kid! Can you even imagine the scenario? Well, only then do you understand what a horror it is (literally!) to live such a life. And yet, those courageous women found the strength within themselves to keep living and working hard for themselves and their kids – even if it meant begging!

Imagine being thanked by a kid your age or even younger (that makes it way more painful to perceive, since the smaller a kid is, the more innocent he is) for giving him food, something I had always seen not as a privilege, but as a right: “Hey, I want to eat now. Give me something to eat, please!” Imagine being a mother and hearing your kid say that while being completely helpless to help. That would BREAK my heart; that would drive me insane.

I could never have imagined that a child might be denied the same beauties of life I took for granted. Believe me: I was quite educated, empathetic, and emotionally intelligent for my age – but I could never have predicted that level of suffering. It taught me to be grateful for EVERYTHING I have, even on bad days, even when crying.

Anyway… I hope they are all right now. And I don’t just hope–I pray to God that they are thriving, exactly as they prayed hoped for our welfare… Amen.


(Written at 3AM, could contain grammatical mistakes.)
- Nihad Badalov

Until age 3, I spoke Turkish better than Azerbaijani or Russian, watching so much Turkish TV that I spoke Turkish to my parents.

My parents found it outrageous that I spoke Turkish better than Azerbaijani and worried it might be troublesome for me to later learn Russian.

The next day, technicians came and fully removed Turkish TV channels, replacing them with Russian ones. I was then enrolled in a Russian-speaking kindergarten class.

Within 2 years, I started speaking Russian so well that I couldn’t even imagine attending anything other than a Russian-speaking class in my new school.

14 years later, I speak no Turkish. Forcing me to learn Russian was, in my opinion, one of my parents’ best decisions. Very glad!

- Nihad Badalov

Overview?

Hi!

I’m a 17-year-old kid born on April 21st, 2008, and raised in Baku, Azerbaijan. I lived in Baku until I hit 14 in '22; I then moved to Germany.

I’ll just tell you some things about me for now.

Languages

I speak the following languages:

• Azerbaijani. Azerbaijani is a language in the Turkic language family. It is my mother tongue and I find it beautiful!
• Russian. Russian is the first foreign language I started learning when I was about 4 to 5 years old (2012-2013). Everyone in my family also speaks Russian to some degree. And because I’ve already been speaking Russian for about 13 years and attended a Russian-speaking class (everything we learned was in Russian), I often call it my 2nd mother tongue. I think that Russian is also beautiful!
• English. English is my second foreign language. I was forced to start learning English in 2018 by my parents (I am really thankful now), when I was about 10 years old. I am very grateful to be speaking English. (I’ll probably have a separate article on this sometime in the future!)
• German. German is my third foreign language that I started learning in about 2021, when I was 13 years old. Although I have a B2-level certificate and have been living in Germany since 2022, I still can’t speak German to a very decent degree. But, to be fair, I’ve never learned German by myself, fueled by my own passion & interest toward the language; nonetheless, I am planning to do that very soon, since it began to grow on me and I’d like to excel in it! (I’ll probably have a separate article on this too!)

Personality Traits

*This was a section about my personality traits, but I removed it.

Chances are, when I am talking to you, I will fine-tune my qualities, allocate a certain personality and cater to you, so you can fully feel comfortable with me. (I don’t do this consciously, it just happens on its own.)

Hobbies

My hobbies are:

• Sports. I’m not your typical gym-bro or a TikTok calisthenics (I don’t go to the gym) star. In fact, if you saw me, you probably wouldn’t even say I do sports! But physical exercise has had a huge impact on me and I will forever do sports. Why? To be fit & healthy and not to let my body stagnate.
• Programming & technologies. I like sciences – that’s where computer science & programming come in. I like programming, I like tinkering, I love being able to create using code & machines. I find it to be the sculpting of the 21st century. Please also note that I have some sub-hobbies within this one, but I count them all as programming & tech.
• Reading. I am really grateful that books exist. The sparse, scarce, occasional (that cannot be expressed with words), unusual and uncommon emotions & experiences that one lives through – they all can be found, caught, experienced & relived in books of genius people of the past. How fascinating. Books are compressed mental models that were put in a short span of some 500 pages that could be read in a single sitting. And then, you’ll have adopted all those mental models and philosophies, too! (I hope this doesn’t sound too nerdy.)
• Sciences. I like math, physics, chemistry (all right, not really chemistry, to be honest), and other sciences. They make my brain struggle. And I like struggle – it makes the brain work.
• Humanity. I love people (I am a humanist), cultures & multiculturalism, languages & multilingualism, and getting to know new people (I am quite extroverted when I speak the languages I can speak well) and hearing their stories. When I say I am really grateful to be alive, I can’t express my feelings anywhere close to what I actually feel!

I am interested in other things too, but nothing more distinctive comes to my mind as of writing this.

Note

It is really difficult to fully describe someone’s character through a screen, by text. I would say – and I hope I don’t come off as self-centered or arrogant – that it is even more difficult to describe mine: the multiculturalism in every aspect of my life makes it difficult to fully describe my values – simply because they are always nuanced.

Once, I got sort of “insulted” because of this; the person called me “innocent” and “too centrist”, insinuating that I don’t have a strong/any character; (Note that I categorically disagree: I have quite a lot of values I am willing to rigorously defend.)

I will keep updating this blog post.

- Nihad Badalov

• Stories. Sometimes, funny things happen in my life. I’d like to share those stories.

• My thoughts. (I thought of calling this “Philosophy”, but that sounds too “gray-haired-philosopher”-ish nowadays). I’d sometimes like to share my opinions on different topics. Some examples: what I think of capitalism, my thoughts on being successful, etc.; nihilism, stoicism, and so on; why one should dream big and set huge goals & objectives and have great ambitions, and so forth.

• Dilemmas. Sometimes, in real life, I am met with dilemmas! Writing these out helps me “chew” and progress through them.

• Observations, questions, etc. Being curious has developed my observation skills. Those, in their turn, have always made me ask questions. (Some would even call them superfluous, but who cares.)

• …

- Nihad Badalov